


Cut The String

by ghoulaesthetics (astraielle)



Series: tumblr prompts [11]
Category: Mass Effect - All Media Types, Mass Effect Trilogy
Genre: F/F, Prompt Fic, Tumblr Prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-30
Updated: 2017-08-30
Packaged: 2018-12-21 16:37:49
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 576
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11948295
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/astraielle/pseuds/ghoulaesthetics
Summary: They’re laying down in the aftermath when she hears Miranda let the words out.“Congratulations, you actually convinced me to sleep with you.”





	Cut The String

**Author's Note:**

> s/o to katey for sending me the morning after prompt ""Congratulations, you actually convinced me to sleep with you." For whomever bc you know I know nothing of me or mea"
> 
> thank u anyway for letting me write smth cool & fun
> 
> fshep/miranda with lee shepard. me3/post thane’s death.

They’re laying down in the aftermath when she hears Miranda let the words out. 

“Congratulations, you actually convinced me to sleep with you.”

There’s a laugh behind the words, and it’s almost sad, except it’s not, not really. 

The sheets are a mess, gathered mostly around Miranda’s waist. Lee doesn’t bother with the modesty, not at this point anyway. She’s reclining, relaxing and letting her body re-centre itself as it often does after the act.  

“It wasn’t like it took much,” she points out. What’s unspoken is the implication that it was something they should have done a long time ago, a chance that they both let slide past them for a myriad of reasons. They circled each other and kept missing, until it was too late. By the time Miranda had worked out just how she felt about the infamous Shepard, Lee had already busied herself by falling for a dying man. Miranda made herself let it go. When push came to shove, she wasn’t going to insert herself someplace that she needn’t be. And if Lee wanted to convince herself that she was going to be happy with someone that was going to leave her whether he wanted to or not, Miranda wouldn’t pretend that she didn’t take a small, vindictive pleasure in that fact.

They could be so fabulously cruel to each other, if they pleased. 

“No,” she admits. “It really didn’t.” 

Miranda reaches out for her, pushes stray strands of dark hair out of her eyes and past her scars. They look like they’ve gotten so much worse than when she first woke up in the Cerberus base, but she finds herself not minding much. It’s just as much a part of this woman as anything else on her.  

Shepard catches her hand, pulling it down towards her mouth. “You only touch me like that when you’re thinking,” she says, letting her feel the shape each word takes on her lips. Miranda shivers ever so slightly. “You only get gentle when you’re pensive.” 

Lee’s words are low and pointed. The deep voice moves through her, demanding she bare it all. She’s not so sure she wants to, but she does it anyway. 

“We should have done this a long time ago.”

“This?”

“Us. In bed. And in general.”

“Hmm.” She leans back and looks away from Miranda, dark brown eyes staring thoughtfully at the apartment ceiling. It was unwise to meet on the Normandy, but they could get away with things here. “Maybe. Thane moved faster.” She glances over at Miranda, letting her eyes roam across the expanse of her pale torso. “And besides, I spent the first three months of having you as my second wanting to strangle you at every turn.” 

She gives her a lazy smile before rolling back over towards her. It’s not the way most people would request a kiss, but then again, Shepard isn’t most people. It’s slow, intense, and surprisingly sweet. Neither would ever dare to voice aloud how much the other means to them in this moment. Lee refuses to let herself feel, and Miranda won’t acknowledge that the state that they exist in is very much a temporary one. Every meeting is tinged with a sense of dread, and neither is prepared to hear the truth of it. And so they exist here, in a delicate equilibrium. It is not perfect, but it is theirs, and that’s more than either can ask for. 


End file.
